The Rock
I absolutely
love the imagery of the first three verses of Isaiah 51. To those who pursue righteousness and seek
the Lord, look to the rock from which you were hewn! Isn’t that an absolutely amazing image? Those who have faith are of the same rock as Abraham,
who was the first in the line of the Hebrew people.
What I
really enjoy about this line of thinking is that the focus and the emphasis
really goes back to God. Who is it that
hewed Abraham out of the rock or dug him out of the quarry? God, of course. The faith of Abraham is rooted in God. Those who are faithful are also rooted in
God’s action. It is neat to realize that
the same faith for which Abraham is praised is available to us because we are
hewn out of the same rock!
A New Teaching
As we move
along into the next section of verses, we hear about a new law the God is going
to usher forth. For the record, the Hebrew
word for law there is torah – no surprise.
However, the word torah can also mean instruction or teaching. Of course, one can’t help but read a passage
like this and think about Jeremiah 31:33.
In that passage the Lord promises to do a new thing and says that this
new covenant will be written upon their hearts.
This
parallel makes even more sense when we get down to verse 7. In this passage the Lord speaks to those “in
whose heart is my law.” Through each of
these passages we can understand what the Lord truly desires. The Lord wants His people to not simply obey
His words but to desire to be obedient.
He doesn’t want people who live a life different than what is on their
heart. God wants people whose hearts
have actually changed so as to be obedient because it is truly who they are as
people.
Trusting God
I also love
the promise that ends verse 7 and continues through verse 8. God tells those who have His law in their
heart to not fear the reviling of mankind.
After all, the moth will destroy the things of mankind. The worm will eat those who are
deceased. But nothing can touch the
salvation that God has prepared for those who have His law within their
hearts. Jesus gives us similar advice
and for similar reasons in Matthew 6:19-21.
However, not
everyone is capable of putting that kind of trust in God. There are people out there who cannot help
but fear those who are in the physical world.
On one level, this makes complete sense.
After all, we can see and touch and hear the people who can harm us in
this life.
But on the
other hand, God gives an incredible line of reasoning in verse 12 to counter
our innate fear of the physical world. We
are afraid of people who will themselves die.
In fact, we ourselves can’t even do anything about our own death. As the old saying goes, the only things that
are sure in this life are death and taxes.
So if death is inevitable, why do we fear people who promise to harm
us? Can they do anything to us that
won’t happen eventually?
Yet, God can
do something about the time after we die.
Why should we not fear Him? Why
is it that we fear more the people who can only bring about the inevitable
while completely overlooking the one who can make secure the uncertain? Did you ever notice how short-sighted human
beings can be?
The Cup Of Wrath
The end of
this chapter is largely about drinking the cup of God’s wrath. Of course, we have to notice first that the
Hebrew people were handed the cup of God’s wrath for a reason. They were disobedient. In fact, they were so disobedient that God
forced the Hebrew people to drink the cup of God’s wrath to its dregs. In the process many Hebrew people had died
and those who didn’t die had been dragged into captivity. This was a horrible time for the Hebrew
people.
However,
there is hope in the end of the chapter.
God says to His people that their time to drink from the cup of the
Lord’s wrath is coming to an end. Our
hope can rest in the fact even when we are deserving of judgment God has a
limit. When we have learned our lesson
and repent, the time of judgment will come to an end.
Then, we
have a comment at the end that those who were the tormentors of the Hebrew
people would be made to drink the cup of the Lord’s wrath instead of the Hebrew
people. Again we see the merciless
nature of the Babylonians and the Assyrians come back to haunt them. Had they been merciful in executing God’s
judgment upon the Hebrew people, they would not have been made to drink the cup
of the Lord’s wrath. But since they took
advantage of the Lord’s plan and were merciless, they find themselves standing
in the line of God’s judgment. I said it
a few days ago and I’ll say it again.
Note to self: learn this lesson.
Be merciful.
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